DECRYPTION – Several successive developments attempt to regulate a practice that has become unbearable for many French people. A task far from easy.
«Hello, I am calling you regarding your rights to the training account“. These calls exasperate millions of French people every day, harassed by telephone canvassers morning, noon and evening. To stem the incessant flow of requests, the government has put in place, for several months, successive measures which very often arrive late, after numerous abuses have already been reported.
The regulations governing telephone canvassing are thus changing once again on March 1, 2023. This practice will now be prohibited on weekends and public holidays, and limited during the week to strict hours: from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. “This framework will apply both to persons not registered on the list of opposition to Bloctel telephone canvassing and to those registered, but solicited within the framework of a current contract.“, specified the Ministry of the Economy. The Bloctel tool set up by the State and managed by Worldline, is a free service allowing users to register their fixed and mobile telephone numbers to oppose cold calling. Professionals are also required to register on this site and remove the numbers of registered consumers from their listings.
This new decree providesthat a consumer cannot be solicited by telephone more than four times a month by the same professional“. In addition, when the consumer refuses this canvassing during the conversation, the professional can no longer contact him for two months.
Among the other measures that came into force recently, since January 1, 2023, commercial canvassing platforms no longer have the right to send SMS or call individuals from numbers starting with a 06 or a 07. Automatic numbering software is therefore framed in this way. Similarly, canvassing concerning the personal training account (CPF) is now strictly prohibited. A decision taken in response to the explosion in the number of calls to offer training via the CPF account, since the hours stored on each French account were converted into euros, in 2019.
The law of December 19, behind this change, adds that any breach of this prohibition is punishable by an administrative fine of 75,000 euros for a natural person and 375,000 euros for a legal person. In addition, these calls were not very effective: only 6% of people who had taken a training attribute the initiative of their registration to canvassing, according to a study by Dares dated February 17th.
An insufficient device according to several consumer associations
Until now, the existing devices still left holes in the racket. Nearly 5 million consumers are now registered on Bloctel’s opposition list, but the service still recorded nearly 400,000 reports made since October 1, 2021. These depositions come from people called by a canvasser even though they are registered on Bloctel, confirms the ministry. However, on the professional side, 1,200 entities have been identified and 10 million telephone numbers have been removed from commercial files sent to the administration.
Some players are thus calling for going further to regulate the practice. Lawyer at the consumer defense association CLCV, Olivier Gayraud says he is disappointed by the latest government measure which does not put the consumer at the center of the discussions. “This framework of schedules is extremely broad, with the possibility of canvassing people nine hours a day from Monday to Friday“, he tells the Figaro. In addition, the decree specifies the prohibition to call back a potential customer within two months following the refusal by the consumer of the proposed canvassing. “Does this therefore mean that once the period of two months has passed, the person risks being called back again?“, pretends to be surprised Olivier Gayraud.
Critics shared by UFC-Que Choisir, which regretted, after the vote on the measure on the CPF, that these sectoral restrictions “intervene each time late, after thousands of victims have been had”. The association believes that “would be much more effective to outright ban unsolicited solicitation».
A difficult arbitration for the government, which defends its choices
For its part, the government defends itself, explaining that it has arbitrated between the demands of the companies concerned by cold calling and the consumer associations demanding the banning of this practice. Many SMEsneed this relay for their development“Recalls the office of the Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs, Olivia Grégoire. About 56,000 jobs are directly affected, we add, specifying that a gesture has been granted to consumer associations to ban this practice, especially on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, when the French are at home and want to rest. The minister’s office also specifies that the public administration, INSEE or the activity of pollsters are derogatory to this decree since their activity does not fall within the framework of a commercial approach.
Similarly, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) highlights its record. Responsible for monitoring the provisions governing cold calling, the institution has already imposed, since the beginning of the year, fines on five companies for a total amount of 545,000 euros, due to abusive cold calling practices. Each of these fines is accompanied by the publication of the name of the company concerned, in order to discourage players who seek to engage in this practice. Surveillance by the DGCCRF has been carried out for a long time: in 2021, an investigation within 3,199 establishments had already led to the sanctioning of 138 professionals for a total fine of 3.5 million euros, i.e. double 2019.
But for Olivier Gayraud, the modificationsinstitutionalize the practice of canvassers“, while unsolicited canvassing is prohibited in some countries, such as Germany, where individuals who wish to be contacted must register to be reached by telephone. The lawyer also advises consumers againstto buy a product in a vulnerable canvassing situation, without having had time to compare the offers. Even if the company concerned is completely honest and honorable».
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Another major issue, the hunt for scams concerning CPF accounts is slipping. According to the Caisse des dépôts, 14,300 frauds have been recorded since 2019, for damages totaling 16 million euros. Faced with the State’s difficulties in limiting the risks, certain training players are organizing themselves. The founders of the recognized language certification LILATE, for example, decided to create a collective to fight against fraud in the personal training account. Now, once a training company becomes a member, members will be able tocentralize, sort and have evidence» which will be communicated to France Competences, the authority validating these certifications, and the Caisse des dépôts, in charge of the official CPF website. Depending on the reports, the deregistration of fraudulent organizations will be carried out.
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